Revisiting Poverty Trends and the Role of Social Protection Systems in Africa during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Quantifying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on poverty in Africa has been as difficult as predicting the path of the pandemic, mainly due to data limitations. The advent of new data sources, including national accounts and phone survey data, pr...
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2022
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099439009132230066/IDU0a252038a0259c04a26099f00ae922b7f52b3 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/38014 |
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okr-10986-380142022-09-15T05:10:46Z Revisiting Poverty Trends and the Role of Social Protection Systems in Africa during the COVID-19 Pandemic Abay, Kibrom A. Yonzan, Nishant Kurdi, Sikandra Tafere, Kibrom PANDEMIC IMPACT REASSESSMENT COVID-19 POVERTY SOCIAL PROTECTION PHONE SURVEY DATA COVID-RELATED POVERTY COVID IMPACT ON FRAGILE POPULATIONS SOCIAL PROTECTION EFFECTIVENESS VULNERABILITIES IN SOCIAL PROTECTION PROGRAMMING Quantifying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on poverty in Africa has been as difficult as predicting the path of the pandemic, mainly due to data limitations. The advent of new data sources, including national accounts and phone survey data, provides an opportunity for a thorough reassessment of the impact of the pandemic and the subsequent expansion of social protection systems on the evolution of poverty in Africa. This paper combines per capita gross domestic product growth from national accounts with data from High-Frequency Phone Surveys for several countries to estimate the net impact of the pandemic on poverty. It finds that the pandemic increased poverty in Africa by 1.5–1.7 percentage points in 2020, relatively smaller than early estimates and projections. The paper also finds that countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence experienced the greatest increases in poverty, about 2.1 percentage points in 2020. Furthermore, the paper assesses and synthesizes empirical evidence on the role that social protection systems played in mitigating the adverse impact of the COVID-19 crisis in Africa. It reviews social protection responses in various African countries, mainly focusing on the impact of these programs and effectiveness of targeting systems. Although the evidence base on the protective role of social protection programs during the pandemic remains scarce, the paper highlights important findings on the impacts of these programs while also uncovering some vulnerabilities in social protection programming in Africa. Finally, the paper draws important lessons related to the delivery, targeting, and impact of various social protection programs launched in Africa in response to the pandemic. 2022-09-14T19:43:16Z 2022-09-14T19:43:16Z 2022-09 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099439009132230066/IDU0a252038a0259c04a26099f00ae922b7f52b3 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/38014 English en Policy Research Working Papers;10172 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Africa |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English English |
| topic |
PANDEMIC IMPACT REASSESSMENT COVID-19 POVERTY SOCIAL PROTECTION PHONE SURVEY DATA COVID-RELATED POVERTY COVID IMPACT ON FRAGILE POPULATIONS SOCIAL PROTECTION EFFECTIVENESS VULNERABILITIES IN SOCIAL PROTECTION PROGRAMMING |
| spellingShingle |
PANDEMIC IMPACT REASSESSMENT COVID-19 POVERTY SOCIAL PROTECTION PHONE SURVEY DATA COVID-RELATED POVERTY COVID IMPACT ON FRAGILE POPULATIONS SOCIAL PROTECTION EFFECTIVENESS VULNERABILITIES IN SOCIAL PROTECTION PROGRAMMING Abay, Kibrom A. Yonzan, Nishant Kurdi, Sikandra Tafere, Kibrom Revisiting Poverty Trends and the Role of Social Protection Systems in Africa during the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| geographic_facet |
Africa |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Papers;10172 |
| description |
Quantifying the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic on poverty in Africa has been as difficult
as predicting the path of the pandemic, mainly due to data
limitations. The advent of new data sources, including
national accounts and phone survey data, provides an
opportunity for a thorough reassessment of the impact of the
pandemic and the subsequent expansion of social protection
systems on the evolution of poverty in Africa. This paper
combines per capita gross domestic product growth from
national accounts with data from High-Frequency Phone
Surveys for several countries to estimate the net impact of
the pandemic on poverty. It finds that the pandemic
increased poverty in Africa by 1.5–1.7 percentage points in
2020, relatively smaller than early estimates and
projections. The paper also finds that countries affected by
fragility, conflict, and violence experienced the greatest
increases in poverty, about 2.1 percentage points in 2020.
Furthermore, the paper assesses and synthesizes empirical
evidence on the role that social protection systems played
in mitigating the adverse impact of the COVID-19 crisis in
Africa. It reviews social protection responses in various
African countries, mainly focusing on the impact of these
programs and effectiveness of targeting systems. Although
the evidence base on the protective role of social
protection programs during the pandemic remains scarce, the
paper highlights important findings on the impacts of these
programs while also uncovering some vulnerabilities in
social protection programming in Africa. Finally, the paper
draws important lessons related to the delivery, targeting,
and impact of various social protection programs launched in
Africa in response to the pandemic. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Abay, Kibrom A. Yonzan, Nishant Kurdi, Sikandra Tafere, Kibrom |
| author_facet |
Abay, Kibrom A. Yonzan, Nishant Kurdi, Sikandra Tafere, Kibrom |
| author_sort |
Abay, Kibrom A. |
| title |
Revisiting Poverty Trends and the Role of Social Protection Systems in Africa during the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_short |
Revisiting Poverty Trends and the Role of Social Protection Systems in Africa during the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_full |
Revisiting Poverty Trends and the Role of Social Protection Systems in Africa during the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_fullStr |
Revisiting Poverty Trends and the Role of Social Protection Systems in Africa during the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Revisiting Poverty Trends and the Role of Social Protection Systems in Africa during the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_sort |
revisiting poverty trends and the role of social protection systems in africa during the covid-19 pandemic |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2022 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099439009132230066/IDU0a252038a0259c04a26099f00ae922b7f52b3 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/38014 |
| _version_ |
1764488316377366528 |